How village chickens can improve the lot of rural women

In this edition of Econ3x3, we feature the last of the batch of articles commissioned for our relaunch in March from young PHD graduates and early career economists, with the support of SA-TIED (Towards Inclusive Economic Development). The brief to researchers was to write up their research as accessible articles and to ensure that the policy implications were clearly spelled out.

This week, Dr Thando Tenza writes on how chickens raised in rural areas can potentially be a game-changer for the (mainly) women involved in farming them. Tenza holds a PHD in Agriculture from the University of KZN and is currently a Chief Researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council. She herself is an example of a successful policy intervention: she began her career at the HSRC as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative in 2021.

Chickens, she argues, take up relatively little land, they can boost food security, and address poverty and malnutrition in resource-poor communities. They are also more environmentally sustainable, with a lower carbon footprint than large commercial operations.

Village chickens are sold mainly through an informal market to vendors, mostly also women, who sell them in central business districts. If this informal market were to be improved, offering better access to more formal markets, it could boost the economic status of the women who raise the chickens, as well as improve food security. Other catalytic interventions include training in agricultural methods and disease control, and improvements in access to land. All these are interventions that local and national governments should be able to undertake and all, she argues, will make a measurable difference in the lives of rural women.

· In our last newsletter we mistakenly attributed an article by Nicola Wills to Paul Cichello and Michael Rogan, although the link itself was correct. Nicola’s article, on the Just Energy Transition, explored how disused coal mines could become sites of job creation. We apologise for the error.

Pippa Green